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Since the whale experiment, several new users have grown to whale status. So essentially, regular contributors receive low payouts unless one of these new whales is following you.

So did the experiment work?

For a little while, I suppose.

The whale experiment will probably end with hard fork 19 coming soon. Community feature should be added in the coming months. Gaining followers and posting regularly seems to be doing well for most. Check out my blog sometime. Will keep an eye out for your future posts. Good luck

What is the Community feature?

Similar to Sub-Reddits. Altho I'm unsure how they intend on implementing it just yet!